A brilliant guide to wine for a beginner as well as a more informed wine enthusiast I especially enjoyed the country-by-country articles in Part 3. There's some specific suggestions made in those articles too, which is helpful. This book is well worth the price. It's one to keep on hand for general reference purposes. ( )

"As usual I received this book for the purposes of review; this time from NetGalley. Also as usual I will give my candid opinions below.

Usually what I would do next is give the positives and negatives of the book. In this case it's difficult to be sure since everything I say can either be interpreted as positive or negative. Therefore, I resort to bulletpoints.

* This one is most assuredly positive. The book is just filled with all manner of photos, maps, diagrams and every other imaginable visual aid.

* The book is meticulously detailed. This is no beginner's guide; I've seen textbooks in Organic Chemistry that contained less information. For each wine you get enough information that you could practically grow the grapes yourself.

* In addition to the depth of knowledge, the book's scope is amazingly broad. It tells you not only how to choose a wine but where it was grown, what weather conditions it prefers and all the way to how to get the cork out.

In summary, you really only need one book on wine and this is that book. If there's something about wine that's not in this book then you don't need to know it." ( )